The St. Louis Young Democrats are working hand-in-hand with Black Lives Matter to organize protests in the city, now entering their sixth night, and the mayor says she is “listening.”

The Young Democrats tweeted Wednesday at about 12:20 p.m. that the next “protest” in response to the not-guilty verdict in the Jason Stockley trial was planned for Wednesday evening, instructing rioters where to show up and at what time, hashtagging #Black Lives Matter on the tweet.

While the Young Democrats can claim they are calling for peaceful protests, that claim is dubious at best, given their connections with Black Lives Matter, a known radical group that espouses violence and has been seen on video kicking in storefront windows, spraying unknown chemicals and throwing rocks at police.

More than a dozen police officers have been reported injured, and tens of thousands of dollars in damage has been caused to local businesses that had nothing to do with the Stockley verdict.

Now it comes to light that the Young Democrats are organizing the riots, which they call protests.

They are ostensibly protesting the shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith, who had been convicted of dealing marijuana, was out on parole and had heroin in his car at the time of his encounter with officer Jason Stockley in late 2011. Stockley shot Smith, claiming he rammed into him with his vehicle. The officer was acquitted of murder charges Sept. 15, touching off five nights of violent protests.

If the St. Louis Young Democrats were really wanting peaceful protests, would they be inviting Black Lives Matter to these rallies?

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson

Of course they wouldn’t, says Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a former labor union agitator who found Christ and now runs a Christian ministry in Los Angeles reaching out to young men on the street.

Peterson is referring to Democrat Mayor Lyda Krewson, who was elected to her first term in April but served on the St. Louis City Council for the previous 20 years. As a councilwoman, she championed laws banning concealed carry of handguns and smoking in the city.

She took heat from some citizens for a tweet in which she appeared to be mocking residents who felt compelled to “drive into a protest.”

That elicited backlash from city residents who wanted to see tougher police action against protesters disrupting traffic.

C’mon Mayor! How bout you actually let the police force do their job and arrest anyone blocking a street? #protestlivesscatter

“Instead of encouraging the police to arrest these people and put them under the jailhouse, she is justifying the anger and destruction these people are causing and to think these protesters are destroying people’s property over a drug dealer, who was out on parole and was caught trying to sell drugs and had rammed his vehicle into police and he ended up dead,” Peterson said.

“So instead of telling the black community that this is not what you want your children to grow up and be like, they are encouraging more of the same thuggish behavior,” Peterson said. “This is vile, and it’s out of control. There is another agenda going on, and it’s not about black lives.”

That agenda is to cause as much chaos, violence, bitterness and destruction as possible, he said, inciting anger that is already reaching the boiling point.

Krewson had her own home spray-painted by protesters a couple of nights ago.

“And while at the same time the mayor is defending these people, they went and spray-painted her house red. She’s still defending them, afraid to stand up to these radical, evil Black Lives Matter folks and allowing them to go out of control now,” Peterson said.

The involvement of the Young Democrats with BLM goes back to the first night of rioting in the beleaguered city.

On Friday, Sept. 15, the Young Democrats tweeted:

We urge all Young Dems to get educated and take action in response to the Stockley verdict. Our statement: https://t.co/9NCb1WTlz1

Then, last night, the organization tweeted that a scheduled town-hall meeting by Mayor Krewson had been canceled because, as the mayor stated, the town halls “are happening in the streets. We are listening.”

Tweet from St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson:

After much consideration, postponing our Town Halls for this week because right now they are happening in the streets. We are listening. pic.twitter.com/VeCBOdXL6g

In a two-page statement Tuesday, the mayor said that, while violence will not be tolerated, she is “listening” to the protesters and their demands. The problem, as the mayor sees it, is not just the Stockley case or even police in general, but years of what she called “institutional racism” in cities like St. Louis.

The “root cause” of the city’s racial angst is “a legacy of policies that disproportionately impact people along racial and economic lines. … This is institutional racism,” she said in the statement, adding on her Twitter page that St. Louis has a chance to “lead the way” in providing more equitable police service.

She concluded by saying her administration is “working to expedite existing plans to increase equity.”

The bottom line, according to Peterson’s read, is that the mayor is condemning violence on the one hand while encouraging it on the other.

“That’s a ridiculous statement. Black Americans are not suffering from institutional racism but from the destruction of black families due to black anger, which has led to a crisis of moral character,” Peterson said. “It has nothing to do with racism at all.”

Peterson said if he were advising the mayor, he would challenge her to speak with the force of moral clarity.

“It’s either right or wrong what is going on in those streets. Good or evil,” he said. “There is no moral clarity to that statement she put out.

“On the one hand, she says we’re not going to tolerate violence. But then, on the other, she is not only tolerating it but encouraging it. They need to arrest these folks immediately. This woman is talking out of both sides of her mouth. She is afraid to stand up to these people, and she is supporting them because she is a liberal Democrat, and that’s what liberal Democrats do.”

By blaming her own city for “institutional racism,” the mayor is essentially providing code words to excuse violent reactions on the streets.

If this continues to happen in U.S. cities, “It’s over for America,” Peterson said.

“Especially decent folks, they will end up having to leave the urban areas, because they will see things are spinning out of control; the inmates are running the insane asylums,” he said. “You can never satisfy an angry people. The black Americans are angry, so appeasement is not going to do pacify them.”

The only recipe for peace is that black leaders will step up and encourage forgiveness and a release of anger, he said.

But that’s not what’s happening.

On Sunday, a Pee Wee football team made up of 7- and 8-year-old boys in Cahokia, Illinois, took a knee during the National Anthem. The coach said he was asked by one of his players if he could take a knee like the NFL players do. He asked parents for approval, and they gave it.

“You have a Pee Wee football team whose coach is telling his entire team it’s OK to take a knee in honor of the drug dealer, and it was approved by the parents of the players,” Peterson said. “It’s unheard of, just mind-blowing to me, that the parents are OK with that. These boys are 8 years old, so that means we’re going to have another generation growing up hating white people and blaming them for their problems.”